Background

VACANCIES - We are always open to informal enquiries for PhD or Post-doctoral positions in this lab, and often find a way to fund good candidates. Please feel free to email me if you are interested (jeff.errington@ncl.ac.uk ).

Funding

Work in the lab is supported by a European Research Council Advanced Investigator Grant and a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award. Several students and post-docs have been supported directly by Long Term Fellowships from EMBO and the EU Marie-Curie scheme.

Industrial Relevance

Early work from the Errington lab was exploited through a spin-out company Prolysis Ltd, which was recently acquired by an international anti-infectives comapny Biota Pharmaceuticals Inc (www.biotapharma.com).

A Newcastle University spin out company Demuris Ltd (www.Demuris.co.uk) has been established to exploit drug screening opportunities emerging from the Errington lab.

Patents

Several patents have been filed or granted on antibiotic screening methods and new antibiotic compounds.

Research

Cell division, chromosome segregation, and the control of cell shape are some of the most fundamental problems in biology. This lab uses an array of biochemical, genetic and microscopic methods to study these problems in a range of bacteria, including important pathogens.

We also collaborate with Demuris Ltd, an antibiotic discovery company, in finding inhibitors of some of the essential cell processes we study, which might be turned into novel antibiotics. The compounds we look for are made by actinomycetes, a fascinating group of bacteria that make many of our current antibiotics and other drugs, and have amazing biology and life cycles.

Finally, we study cell wall deficient or “L-form” bacteria and have described the molecular basis for their growth and proliferation. These curious organisms are interesting for three very fundamental reasons. First, they are good models for primordial cells of interest to thinking about the origins of cellular life. Second, they can be used in innovative ways as “chassis” for synthetic biology applications. Third, they are probably important in a range of chronic, persistent or recurrent infections, such as urinary tract infections.